I do not think, she replied, that the divine Apostle divided the intellectual world into localities, when he named part as in heaven, part as on earth, and part as under the earth. There are three states in which reasoning creatures can be: one from the very first received an immaterial life, and we call it the angelic: another is in union with the flesh, and we call it the human: a third is released by death from fleshly entanglements, and is to be found in souls pure and simple. Now I think that the divine Apostle in his deep wisdom looked to this, when he revealed the future concord of all these reasoning beings in the work of goodness; and that he puts the unembodied angel-world “in heaven,” and that still involved with a body “on earth,” and that released from a body “under the earth”; or, indeed, if there is any other world to be classed under that which is possessed of reason (it is not left out); and whether any one choose to call this last “demons” or “spirits,” or anything else of the kind, we shall not care. We certainly believe, both because of the prevailing opinion, and still more of Scripture teaching, that there exists another world of beings besides, divested of such bodies as ours are, who are opposed to that which is good and are capable of hurting the lives of men, having by an act of will lapsed from the nobler view69    lapsed from the nobler view (ὑπολήψεως). This is the common reading: but Krabinger prefers λήξεως, which is used by Gregory (De Hom. Opif. c. 17, “the sublime angelic lot”), and is a Platonic word. The other word, “lapsed,” is also Platonic., and by this revolt from goodness personified in themselves the contrary principle; and this world is what, some say, the Apostle adds to the number of the “things under the earth,” signifying in that passage that when evil shall have been some day annihilated in the long revolutions of the ages, nothing shall be left outside the world of goodness, but that even from those evil spirits70    from those evil spirits. So Great Catechism, c. 26 (fin.). Here too Gregory follows Origen (c. Cels. vi. 44), who declares that the Powers of evil are for a purpose (in answer to Celsus’ objection that the Devil himself, instead of humanity, ought to have been punished). “Now it is a thing which can in no way cause surprise, that the Almighty, Who knows how to use wicked apostates for His own purposes, should assign to such a certain place in the universe, and should thus open an arena, as it were, of virtue, for those to contend in who wish to “strive lawfully” for her prize: those wicked ones were to try them, as the fire tries the gold, that, having done their utmost to prevent the admission of any alloy into their spiritual nature, and having proved themselves worthy to mount to heaven, they might be drawn by the bands of the Word to the highest blessedness and the summit of all Good.” These Powers, as reasoning beings, shall then themselves be “mastered by the Word.” See c. Cels. viii. 72. shall rise in harmony the confession of Christ’s Lordship. If this is so, then no one can compel us to see any spot of the underworld in the expression, “things under the earth”; the atmosphere spreads equally over every part of the earth, and there is not a single corner of it left unrobed by this circumambient air.

_Μ. Ἡ δὲ, Οὔ μοι δοκεῖ, φησὶν, ὁ θεῖος Ἀπόστολος, τοπικῶς τὴν νοερὰν διακρίνων οὐσίαν, τὸ μὲν ἐπουράνιον, τὸ δὲ ἐπίγειον, τὸ δὲ καταχθόνιον ὀνομάσαι. Ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ τρεῖς τῆς λογικῆς φύσεώς εἰσι καταστάσεις ἡμῖν, ἐξ ἀρχῆς τὴν ἀσώματον λαχοῦσαι ζωὴν, ἣν ἀγγελικὴν ὀνομάζομεν: ἡ δὲ πρὸς τὴν σάρκα συμπεπλεγμένην ἀνθρωπίνην φαμέν: ἡ δὲ διὰ θανάτου τῶν σαρκικῶν ἀπολελυμένη. Ὅπερ ἐν ψυχαῖς θεωρεῖται, τοῦτο οἶμαι, τῷ βάθει τῆς σοφίας βλέποντα τὸν θεῖον Ἀπόστολον, πάσης τῆς λογικῆς φύσεως τὴν ἐν τῷ ἀγαθῷ ποτε γενησομένην συμφωνίαν ἀποσημαίνειν: ἐπουράνιον μὲν καλοῦντα τὸ ἀγγελικὸν καὶ ἀσώματον: ἐπίγειον δὲ τὸ συμπεπλεγμένον τῷ σώματι: καταχθόνιον δὲ τὸ διακεκρυμμένον ἤδη τοῦ σώματος, ἢ δή τις καὶ ἄλλη παρὰ τὰ εἰρημένα φύσις ἐν λογικῇ θεωρεῖται, ἣν εἴτε δαίμονας εἴτε πνεύματα, εἴτε τοιοῦτον ἐθέλοι τις κατονομάζειν, οὐ διοισόμεθα. Πεπίστευται γὰρ ἔκ τε τῆς κοινῆς ὑπολήψεως, καὶ ἐκ τῆς τῶν Γραφῶν παραδόσεως, εἶναί τινα φύσιν ἔξω τῶν τοιούτων σωμάτων ὑπεναντίως πρὸς τὸ καλὸν διακειμένην, καὶ βλαπτικὴν τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης ζωῆς, ἑκουσίως τῆς κρείττονος ὑπολήψεως ἀποῤῥυεῖσαν: καὶ τῇ ἀποστάσει τοῦ καλοῦ τὸ ἐκ τοῦ ἐναντίου νοούμενον ἐν αὐτῇ ὑποστήσασαν: ἥνπερ φασὶ καταχθονίοις ἐναριθμεῖν τὸν Ἀπόστολον, τοῦτο ἐν ἐκείνῳ τῷ λόγῳ σημαίνοντα, ὅτι τῆς κακίας ποτὲ ταῖς μακραῖς τῶν αἰώνων περιόδοις ἀφανισθείσης, οὐδὲν ἔξω τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ καταλειφθήσεται. Ἀλλὰ καὶ παρ' ἐκείνων ὁμοφώνως ἡ ὁμολογία τῆς τοῦ Χριστοῦ κυριότητος ἔσται.
Τούτων οὕτως ἐχόντων, οὐκέτ' ἄν τις ἡμᾶς ἀναγκάζοι τῷ τῶν καταχθονίων ὀνόματι τὸν ὑπόγειον ἐννοεῖν χῶρον: ἐπίσης τοῦ ἀέρος πανταχόθεν περικεχυμένου τῇ γῇ, ὡς μηδὲν αὐτῆς μέρος γυμνὸν τῆς περιβολῆς τοῦ ἀέρος καταλαμβάνεσθαι.